Parker's Big Adventure

It has been quite the week for Parker. We've been pretty busy, so hence the lack of postings! He is very into his TKD and could not wait to get going on his color belt classes. He can be a very intense kid about things (you will see this again later on my post). Wednesday night he went to class and while that was going on they were doing a dry-run for the Pinewood Derby where you could come test your cars. They have been working on his car and P did all the painting. Of course Steve used the tools, but he explained everything along the way. Steve said his car did ok and kind of finished in the middle. Parker can get very competitive (he may have gotten that from me?) and so we've been trying to explain to him that there are a lot of cars and if you don't win, you tell the others good race.

On Thursday he "officially" got his yellow belt. There is a big ceremony about removing the white belt and receiving your new belt. He was pretty proud (I think you can tell from the pictures). Also had his Parent-Teacher Conference. Not meaning to brag, but his teacher went on and on about how great Parker is - learning, being nice to others, being helpful, etc. It makes me proud to hear stuff like that. I have been really happy with his teacher this year. Their school is out for 3 weeks in March and for 2 of those weeks he'll be at intersession and she's going to be his teacher then too.

Friday night I went Vegas clothes and shoe shopping. They will also all become my work clothing (I didn't get anything slutty...plus I can't fit into any of that!). At first I was a little discouraged, but after Gordman's, Shoe Carnival and Penny's I'm pretty much set. Might try to find a couple of walking around daytime shirts. Not sure when I'm fitting anymore shopping in though. Steve is out of town for a couple days and million kids things going on before we leave. (6 MORE DAYS!!!!!) Plus I need a hair cut!

Today was the Pinewood Derby. For anyone not familiar when you're in Cub Scouts you make a car to race down a metal track. There are certain rules on weight, products you use etc. They gave out 1st,2nd,3rd medals for each den (generally each grade level thru 5th). They also then take the top 10 times of all the races (it was double elimination) and then they race and the top 3 get trophies. When Parker saw the medals and trophies he was pumped. We kept reminding him that he may not get one and not to be disappointed because he tried his best. There were 5 racing in his den so we were secretly hoping he'd get some kind of medal (didn't matter what place) just because he'd be so excited. Well...... He ended up getting first place and kept breaking their fastest record. Long story short he got into the top ten (and had the fastest overall time). I was a nervous wreck! Plus I was worried he'd break into tears if he got beat. He's not a fit throwing kind of kid, he would have been upset in private. Well.... didn't have to worry about that, he came in 1st! We couldn't believe it. The only race that was really close was the last one for 1st place. I guess I should give Steve more credit! But he acted like he didn't think the car would do very well, but I guess he went home and tweaked some after the Wednesday practice. The other top finishers were in 4th and 5th grade I think. We now aren't sure how next year will go since you know we won't place at all! Then we made the mistake of letting the adult racers (they had their own race) race against him. They can do a lot more modification and add extra weight to their cars. They were so amazed by his time that they wanted to race the adult winner against him for fun. The adult won by about 1 thousandths of a second. I could tell Parker was upset, but once he got it thru his head that they could do different stuff to their cars etc, he was ok. I said that wasn't a real race and no trophies or anything and that they were so impressed with his racing that they wanted to race him too.

Miss E has is no longer sick so she's back to her old self...sassy! Both kids were busy with Valentine's parties at school and Emma also got to go to a play at the DM playhouse on Friday.

I'll post the pics on a separate post and also included a couple recent ones of E.